Bernick: You know quite well that Betty was in love with me.
Lona: But what about me?
Bernick: Believe me, Lona, you would never have been happy with
me.
Lona: Was it out of consideration for my happiness that you
sacrificed me?
Bernick: Do you suppose I acted as I did from selfish motives? If
I had stood alone then, I would have begun all over again with
cheerful courage. But you do not understand how the life of a man
of business, with his tremendous responsibilities, is bound up
with that of the business which falls to his inheritance. Do you
realise that the prosperity or the ruin of hundreds--of
thousands--depends on him? Can you not take into consideration
the fact that the whole community in which both you and I were
born would have been affected to the most dangerous extent if the
house of Bernick had gone to smash?
Lon: Then is it for the sake of the community that you have
maintained your position these fifteen years upon a lie?
Bernick: Upon a lie?
Lona: What does Betty know of all this...that underlies her union
with you?
Bernick: Do you suppose that I would hurt her feelings to no
purpose by disclosing the truth?
Lona: To no purpose, you say? Well, well--You are a man of
business; you ought to understand what is to the purpose.
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